Tag: Neruda

  • And a Song of Despair

    And despair is to separate to break up
    to stop falling in love and hit bottom
    down from to hope and to be the despair
    of another now absent and in a state
    of disrepair collapse and abandonment
    like the house on a dead moon unplugged
    in the mist of space dust floating falling.

    To disengage throw away toss out fall
    back without limbs to swim or fins to flap
    the earnest muscles sore as a dam morn
    train slowly pulling out of a foggy station
    leaving your sad waves to platform alone
    waiting for the next train hands waving
    from disappearing windows brakes off.

    Dissed and pool pissed despondent one
    the heart crestfallen full of sorrow sick
    as a parrot unable to breathe or repeat
    how hap hap happy we were when we
    happily eschewed commas and went non
    stop without regard for clarity to others
    or any kind of on time railroad timetable.

    From pillow to pillow I missed you
    but love is on the dot not wanting
    a life of one’s own but a share
    of the Earth a clear spot to bed
    down without fear of knowing
    what can never be fully known
    or understood the random odds

    and ends the noise some call music
    others say poppycock and applesauce
    I wash my eyes out with vinegar
    and oil my hair for the dark night
    of the soul is here drumming door
    rhythms untuned sonic booms
    as I fall through the night gloom

    destined to wreck on the jetty pokes
    into the ocean waves oh Lord please
    let me be misunderstood disregarded
    by anyone but with her I cannot be
    seen this drowning in words won’t
    work then or now what silence wanted
    was for me to go up into love the altar

    boy who understood but a few words
    of Latin and even then daydreamed
    through the mass of the sea and waves
    fell asleep on the altar but awoke quick
    and jangled the bells upsetting sisters
    yes an old story now how then he met
    the girl of not dreams but awakening.

    What is sundered cannot be surrendered
    alone now at the end of the voyage one
    sees coming through the morning ocean
    fog your bright sun of yellow hair your sky
    of blue eyes your cotton candy cheeks
    of dunes freckled with tiny sad flowers
    your strong legs soft hands your sand

    highs and little lows your kisses full
    of compassion your fall frowns your
    annoying finger in my yawns your grab
    pulling the rear view mirror off its mount
    laughing tussled hair your silence in my
    despair your stubborn insistence we
    make a life together out of despair.

  • Twenty Love Poems: 20

    Mornings stolen cold dirty socks on damp
    feet slushed street Bathsheba and the kids
    sleep past the cryptic graffiti on the corner
    phone booth an annunciation to be glad
    to rejoice as we once recess Angelus rings
    asked joy in backyard bestowed with sun.

    Between no yes we stopped and I touched
    the fruit of your wamb womb cherry bomb
    compassionately swallowed your freckled
    cheeks whole like the great horned owl
    absorbs the snouty mouse grace flavored
    rain blurred eyes wiper smeared drive.

    Byssus threaded hand in hand hip to hip
    we survived ice storms attached to rocks
    blessed grace full I kissed your salt but
    now thin and weak bland unpalatable
    the beach is closed to surfers who pray
    for waves gone by sucked into sand.

    Our songs drift into space beyond sound
    what cannot be seen or measured is love
    yeah we rocked and rolled and jazzed it
    up but in the end we are just a folk duo
    doomed to sing our same old love song
    oldie of oldies on infinite scratched repeat.

    Soma of couple submerged together sing
    a sleeping song awake these hundreds
    of years adoring each breast to breast
    and now my heart before need of repair
    asks to roll up what sweetness remains
    into one last rollicking bollocking ball.